I really appreciate your words and will try to think about it. Your statement matches what I have read about Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, but I have my doubts about core beliefs itself: I do not assume to have any fixed core beliefs. I feel like a vacuum. There is nothing. My beliefs are non-existent or if they exist, very variable, more like assumptions.
Therefore, I guess to belong to this category. Despite enduring my feelings (I have no other choice), not labeling it, I do not feel better - quite the opposite. I am consumed by them and they drive me to despair. They do not burn away. I don't know if I'm doing anything wrong.
I'm not sure I'm getting across what I want to explain. I think I understand what you want to say, but it sounds too simple, at least for complex problems. This CBT-like approach seems strange to me - like I am a "wrongly" (= emotional) programmed robot that is supposed to reprogram itself by these techniques. I am not a program, I consist of both feelings (and numbness/dissociation). I don't think feelings always precede a thought/belief. Even if it were, what if these beliefs are true?
What if my ego ("the root belief") is virtually non-existent due to dissociation? Where do I start where there is nothing?
I haven't had the time to look into his exercises in detail, but have already watched a video about it. I know what it feels like to hyperventilate (though not in relation to meditation), so I'm a bit skeptical. As I understand it, hyperventilation releases stress hormones. Isn't that rather the opposite of relaxation? Nevertheless, it would be worth a try. Thanks.
I'm glad that you are looking into the exercises at least. The breathing/hyperventilation isn't like the sort of hyperventilation you get spontaneously from being in distress. That sort of hyperventilation is your body's response to the distress if that makes sense? It's your body's instinctual way of balancing something out. Hyperventilation is basically just taking on more oxygen than normal.
Wim Hoff breathing does this in controlled way. The way I discovered this method was kinda randomly. People had often recommended "meditation" so I tried the sorts of "meditation" they referred to, and it didn't work at all. Until one day I was speaking to a university lecturer about a similar subject and he suggested "guided meditation" might be a better option.
I was a student, so had no money, and I basically scoured bit torrent sites for "guided meditation" until I had quite the collection on my iPod. Then I tried them one by one, until I realised that none of them had worked. Then down to the final couple of downloads I tried one that had a super massive long filename something like "yoga sounds of nature spiritual relaxation music deep breathing guided meditation.mp3" so I was thinking "uh doubt that one will work". But I gave it a shot and the first thing I noticed was that the instructions were very specific. Basically I followed the breathing instructions at the pace it dictated and I would get this pleasant sort of dizzy feeling. It did help to make me feel less stressed/distressed but it was like I was on the ragged edge of passing out of maybe even potentially worse.
But it definitely helped so I kept that MP3 like it was good dust.
Fast forward to about a year ago and struggling really badly again, I started looking for similar breathing exercises on youtube, but nothing worked, even my favourite MP3 only produced the desired physiological response maybe half the time. I kept seeing this Wim Hoff guy show up in my YouTube suggestions but didn't try it because I thought it was probably some rich con artist guru. One day one of his "Ice Man" videos auto played and when I saw that they were actually putting his claims to the test scientifically I decided there might be some merit to his claims.
Eventually I followed one of his YouTube videos (the one for beginners) and I managed fairly well to keep up and do the breath holds, even though I thought that it all sounded a bit trendy, hippie dippie at first. I was definitely skeptical, I mean the video was all trendy tribal style music with this new agey guy talking through it.
The amazing thing after the video though was, that the horrible anxiety, (that really visceral type where it feels like your heart is about to explode and skeleton is going to leap out of your body), had reduced significantly. So I put it on the "worth trying again" pile.
I kept doing the breathing exercises that were on YouTube and the better I got at doing them, the more effective they were.
The best thing to do in my opinion, is to stick to the official Wim Hoff videos, there's some (I'm sure) well meaning "remixes" of the official videos on YouTube and they can be counter productive at best, potentially dangerous at worst. So stick to the official channel!
Also, it takes practice to get the breathing and breath holds correct. The best advice I can give (as Mr Hoff says himself) is never force yourself. Can't quite hold your breath for the full minute or two? No problems, just breathe in breathe out and try hold your breath for the remainder.
Practice certainly helps. It also helps I find to resist the temptation to purse your lips when inhaling. Also don't push the breath out on the exhale portion of the exercise, just let your lungs sort of naturally empty themselves.
Always breath into the bottom of your lungs first, do it relatively gradually and essentially try to mimic the breath sounds in the video. Once you get the exercise down you do feel like your breathing becomes "like a wave" rolling back and forth. If you feel unwell, just stop, resume normal breathing, relax and when you are feeling better you can resume if you want to. It's like any skill, you get better with practice.
It's like when I was a kid and leaning electric guitar, if I could hop back in time and show my younger self my guitar skills I would think I had become Jimi Hendrix and Jimi Page rolled in to one! Even though from my current point of view I aint anything special lol! Point is I've found the more I have done these exercises the more second nature it becomes.
I definitely recommend watching the Wim Hoff official channel's safety videos. There is an official mobile app but I just stick with the videos. I start with the beginners video to warm up and move on to the more challenging one. I repeat the second one as often as I need until I feel relaxed and restored enough.
Always do this sort of breathing in a safe environment! I really hope that if you try this that it will help. I suspect after a few tries you will get a sense of how useful this will be. After all there's no point flogging a dead horse! But good luck! I hold that you find these breathing exercises at least as beneficial as I have! :-)
